A little Zanizbar Culture and History for Ya!

Today I have officially been gone from the US for a month, and I don't know where the time went! I am about finished with the "beginners" course of Swahili at which point I will start with the "intermediate" course. I also learned that since I will be at the school for 3 months, I will actually "graduate" from the school and leave with a certificate basically saying that I am supposed to be able to speak Swahili haha! But I was pretty pumped when I heard that! Also, there are only a few days left in Ramadan and then it will be Ede. Now Ede religiously is only one day, but in Zanzibar they celebrate it for 4 days! And just to simplify things, Ede is like Christmas for Muslims--a time to pray, celebrate with family, give gifts (especially to children), and eat amazing food! So Zanzibar will be having a big party for 4 days next week and I am soooo excited to be a part of it! It is all the locals talk about, and some people re-do their houses and get new carpets, curtains, and paintings. Last night Hafith was actually complaining about how expensive everything is during this time; a typical dad mentality who has a 1 year old and a 7 year old.

This past weekend I spent a lot of time at the beach...go figure. But I actually got somewhat of a tan, so that was pretty exciting. The locals do not understand why "westerners" want to become darker. If you see anyone from Zanzibar by the beach, they are normally in a t-shirt and pants, trying to protect their skin (smart idea). But on Saturday, some of the people I was with wanted to go to a local market by the beach we were at. Normally this would be about a 7 minute dalla dalla bus ride, but they wanted to walk. Trying not to be the "Debbie Downer," I did not voice my concern about it being waaaay too hot to walk that far in the middle of the day! So we walked and we walked and we walked, for about 20 minutes in the direct sunlight! I was literally pouring sweat from everywhere and so were they, and it was at this point that we all wished we had taken the dalla dalla. But at least we got to the market and were only there for about 10 minutes. In my opinion, the only good thing I got out of the market trip was to discover that things were cheapest there than anywhere else because it is a local market, away from all the tourist places. The next day at the beach, I met a really nice girl from London currently living in Dar es Salaam, but she came to Zanzibar for the weekend. We talked a lot and exchanged phone numbers, so that if and when I travel the Dar, I will certainly have to give her a call.

I know that I have said that the food here is amazing, which it is, but for some reason, every night at dinner, I lose my appetite and I can't eat a lot. This apparently really bothers Mama Rahma because every night, she asks me if something is wrong because I am not eating a lot. She has also asked me a lot of questions about what I like to eat, but this is a hard question to answer because the food at home is not comparable with the food here. When asked if I liked seafood, I of course said yes and told her that I come from an area that is well known for its seafood. The very next night she cooked "seafood" which basically was a whole fish that was grilled and then cut in half. When I say whole fish, this means that it was not de-scaled, the head was still on, and it was looking right at me. So feeling rather bad that she cooked it for me, I went to pick a piece up to at least try it, but once I touched it, there was no way I could bring myself to eat it, unless I wanted to be sick. So Mama Rahma and I will continue to have this ongoing battle of trying to find out what I really like.

Also, the teacher who has been teaching us this whole month had a family emergency in Dar es Salaam, so we have a different teacher for the last week. And our new teacher is amazing! We basically just talk the whole class and don't worry too much about the book. He said that the important thing is that we are comfortable with talking basic Swahili. And to this statement, I couldn't agree more! Just in this week so far, I feel so much more confident in my communicating skills. I am hoping to continue private lessons with this teacher in October, being that the school is closed in October because it is their "planning month" (whatever that means).

Today being Wednesday, the school takes the beginner students somewhere to learn about the local area, so today we went to the Palace Museum located on the coast of Stone Town. It was fairly interesting, but I was so amazed at how un-preserved things were. First of all, there is no air conditioning in the building and therefore they have all the windows open letting in all the humid air from the ocean right in through the windows. Also, a lot of things that should maybe be in glass cases weren't. It was just amazing to me that century old history is not being cared for as it should be. But basically the palace was home of the Omani Sultan in the 1800s. Right next to the Palace Museum is the House of Wonders which we didn't get to see today, but I will definitely make my way there sometime soon. I have learned that the history of Zanzibar is completely separate from the rest of Tanzania and Africa. Mainly because they were not part of the European colonization of Africa. They had already been inhabited by the Arabs from Oman, and at one point Zanzibar was the capital of Oman. Now I have not completely figured that one out just yet? Also, the shortest war in history took place on Zanzibar, lasting only 45 minutes! WOW!

So there is your little dose of Zanzibar history and I'm sure I will find out a lot more history during my travels here. As far as my plans for this weekend, my friend Klara (from Sweden) and I are going to go to another island about 30 minutes away from the Zanzibar port called Prison Island. This island was part of the great slave trade that took place in Zanzibar, and it is also home to the large tortoises. So I am really excited about that, and I can add those to my monkey pictures! But until next time! Kwaheri!

Yay for Rotary!

This week so far has been fairly uneventful compared to my past weeks, but don't worry, I still have lots to share! First and foremost, I am an official resident of Tanzania for 2 years and it is stamped in my passport! Whoohoo! Even though I really resent the man working at the school who handles all the permits...he has a serious attitude problem. But I also finally met Stephi Said who is the lady that started the Rotary Club in Zanzibar. She is also the one that was supposed to pick me up at the airport when I arrived, but she forgot and still feels terrible about it despite how many times I have told her it was no big deal. We went to have coffee on Tuesday at the nicest hotel in Zanzibar because she said they have amazing coffee haha. Her story goes as follows...When she was my age, she and 2 friends traveled around the world, starting in Australia and ending in South Africa. But when they arrived in Zanzibar, she decided to stay for the remainder of the trip to take language courses. Then, after graduating from college she came back and started her life here, met her husband, and she now has a 2 month old baby boy. She is really down to earth and will be a big help to be while I am here.

Stephi invited me to the Rotary meeting on Wednesday, and she got me really excited about it because she said I would meet some great people from all over the island. So on Wednesday, she picked me up and we went to the Zanzibar Resort Hotel for the meeting. There are only about 16 official members in their club, where as my club in Columbia has about 40-50 members. They are also extremely laid back and very nice--I guess you can attribute that to the fact that they live on an island. Also, about 1/2 of the club are locals and the other 1/2 are Western Euro-Americans that have lived on the island for years.

For about the first half of the hour long meeting, we talked about me haha! It was quite humorous, and they were all really excited that I was there and wanted to get involved. And Stephi was right when she told me that I would get some really great connections at the meeting. One lady owns a hotel in the southern tip of the island and owns a company called Safari Blue (scuba and snorkeling trips)! And another lady works a free-medical clinic on the Eastern part of the island, so I will most certainly want to visit there. And then another woman owns a hotel in the northern area of the island. All of them told me that I was more than welcome to come and stay at any of their places any time I want. One even said, "Even if you want to just get away for a day or two and take a hot shower, you are more than welcome." And the sound of that just made me soooo happy!

For the 2nd half of the meeting, we talked about different service projects that we want to get involved in. They already have one currently in the works... There is a tribe in the middle of the island who have to carry their clean water uphill about 1.5km from a well at the bottom of the hill. The Rotary Club bought pipes and dug tunnels so the tribe will have running water that will go up the hill. I thought that was an excellent project. Another project that they want to do is work with the local Blood Bank that is on the island. This blood bank has only been here for a year and they are so unorganized and have no idea what they are doing. For example, they do not have a vehicle, so if there was an emergency on the other side of the island, they would have to take the blood in either a taxi or a dalla dalla (local bus). This thought is absolutely absurd! And another example is the fact that a lot of the locals do not want to donate blood for fear of finding out if they at HIV positive! WHAT!! Before they do anything here, they need to educate the local community about health awareness and safety. Being so passionate about this, I have eagerly volunteered to help with this project and I am hoping to meet with the Blood Bank personnel next week. So I will definitely keep y'all updated on that.

Some other general notes on the week...last night as I was sitting on my bed doing my homework, when I received another lovely visit from my little rat friend. And I have decided to take Christine's advice in naming my little friend, seeing as though I will be coming in contact with him often. I have named his Panya, which is Swahili for rat or mouse. But as I was sitting comfortably on my bed, Panya ran along the floor board under my bed...I naturally decided that it would be safest for me to simply remain on my bed. Then he ran back from the way he came and scurried behind my suitcase! But luckily Panya wanted to go in the closet that does not have any of my belongings in it, so I then just ignored it and actually slept quite well. But what was even funnier is that last night I was watching the travel channel (which I watch often) before I went to bed. The episode was about India and there is a Jain Temple there that has rats everywhere! But they are believed to be priests and elders reincarnated...haha! Luckily I am not a member of the Jain religion, so I do not have to be reverent to my friend Panya!

And the other thing is that since I am hanging out with people who are from Europe and the fact that all the locals who know English have a British accent, I am afraid that I have started to pick up on a few "British" words. So when I return home in December, y'all will have to inform me if I am speaking with a different English accent haha! But it is now time for me to go but I will of course be bringing y'all more Zanzibar tales soon! I hope everyone is doing well at home!

Family Fun!

This past weekend was either very fast or very slow paced for me. One Friday I was supposed to go to Stone Town to have some drinks with some friends of mine, but a little before we were going to leave, the power went out. Now this is a very regular occurrence here on Zanzibar and it is not just a certain area that goes out of power, it is the whole island! So our plans were canceled on the account that no one would have power. So I just stayed at home with the family and they told some stories about a power outage about a year ago when the whole island was out of power for 1 month! And it was only until President Bush came to Zanzibar and donated money that the power was restored. I thought that was very interesting and I can only pray that that incident will not reoccur while I am here.

Every year, Hafith's family gathers during Ramadan for a big family celebration with a lot of food. This year, Hafith volunteered his home for the party. The party was set for Saturday at about 6:00pm and I was unsure what time I was going to be picked up from the house I am staying in because the party was at the other house. So I did not do anything all day because I did not want them to come to get me and me not be in the house. So I just kind of lounged around all day watching TV mostly haha. But then, I ran into my little friend "the rat". As I was sitting in the living room watching TV, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something scurry across the floor on the other side of the room. Thinking I was just paranoid, I ignored it but raised my guard a little bit. Then, I saw the silhouette of a mouse climbing up the curtain...at this point, I was over the mouse and I really didn't care what it did. So I have come to the conclusion that the rat is more afraid of me than I am of it and if I see it again, I will simply ignore it. I just went about my business for the remainder of the afternoon and then at about 6:00pm Mama Rahma's brother came to pick up me and the "maids" and bring us to the party.

When we arrived, there were people everywhere! Over 100 people both men, women, and children. The men were on one side of the house and the women were on the other, and when the time came to eat, the women ate first. The food was arranged on mats on the floor and everyone sat in a big rectangle around all the food. People really crammed in... Now when I normally eat dinner with the family, we have plates and utensil's are available if you would like to use them. That was not the case here because in Islamic culture, it is custom to eat with your hands out of the communal tray of food. So all the women around me just started digging (literally) into the food before us. Seeing the method of their eating habits, my appetite dropped severely. And the women around me noticed because they kept telling me "eat eat eat!" and I would respond with "Nimeshiba" which means I am full. But all the women were dressed in their colorful kangas making the room very beautiful and bright. Feeling rather overwhelmed by all the people, I spent the remainder of the evening upstairs in the house and up on the roof where you can see the whole island!

Feeling very tired, I went to bed right when I got back home because I had to wake up early the next morning to go to mass (at the correct Church). The English Mass was at 7:00am!! which is waaay too early if you ask me. So I had to leave the house at about 6:30am to get there in time. It felt really nice to be at the right church and know what was going on and the church itself is very beautiful and old. I put some pictures of it up on Snapfish, so be sure to check them out. Later on Sunday, Klara and I went to a "tourist" restaurant called Livingstone in Stone Town to have some drinks and talk about our weekends. And I have now tried 2 different Tanzanian beers because they do not have a drinking age here because Muslims do not drink. They were okay, but all Tanzanian beers are normally light in color (not my favorite). So basically my weekend was a mixture of craziness and boredom but a new week awaits!

"Oops..." mixed with a little "Oh Yeah!"

Last Sunday I woke up very early, took my "shower" and then headed off to Church for 8:00am Mass, which is the English Mass. Now I had already walked past the church before and the location was where everyone told me the Catholic Church was located. It only took me about 5 minutes to walk there. But when I arrived the 7:00am Swahili Mass was still going on, so I just wandered around the courtyard looking at different things when I ran into this little old lady who could tell I did not know where I should be. So she directed me to this very small chapel off the side of the church. A few other people trickled in and before Mass started, the priest came up to me and asked if I wanted to read the first reading. Having previous experience with reading at Mass at home, I of course said yes. He showed me where in the Bible the reading was and after reading it, I felt pretty confident in my ability to read it well for Mass.

So Mass started and I noticed that several things were different. For example, the parts that the entire congregation said were different and I did not know them from memory. Having gone to Mass almost every weekend in my life, I thought this was rather odd. Also, the chapel was not very decorative--there were no pictures or statues of Mary or Saints. But instead of worrying about it, I just blamed the differences on being in a very different country that could have different customs. So the time came for my reading and I think I did a pretty good job because there were a lot of names and places in the reading (of course). But when the time came for the homily, the priest said that we professed the wrong first reading at which point he read the correct one. HA! But this is where things get interesting. For the entity of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest had his back to the congregation?? And for communion, you were given the Body and then you had to dip it into the chalice to receive the Blood. I thought we changed these things decades ago?? But again, maybe they are just really behind in Zanzibar?

Well later that day I was reading my Tanzanian guide book, looking at Zanzibar, and I realized that the Church I went to that morning was not the Catholic Church but the Anglican Church. HAHA! The Catholic Church was a little bit farther away and I guess that the locals, being almost entirely Muslim, do not know the difference between a Catholic and an Anglican Church. So basically, my first time at a non-Catholic Church was in another country where I was a part of the service and read the wrong reading! haha...oops!

So that was an exciting start to my week, and I did go find the real Catholic Church later that day but they unfortunately had no more Masses on Sunday. I think God will understand my situation.

On Wednesday of this week, I got to check of one of the things off on my Zanzibar "to do" list. With the my school, we went on a field trip to the Josani National Park, home to the famous Colombus Monkey, very rare and only found on Zanzibar! It was really exciting to be feet away from beautiful, red monkeys in their natural habitat! Our guide however wasn't overly knowledgeable because he would speak English really well and rather quickly when we would stop in the Forrest, but when asked a question, he had a very difficult time understanding. So he basically memorized an English script of the Forrest to tell the visitors. But over all it was a really nice trip and I got to see some really interesting things!

But the highlight of my week was yesterday afternoon. Hafith who is my homestay dad took me to a spice farm on the island! And in case you didn't know, Zanzibar is well known for their spices and they used to be the number 1 producer of cloves. The farm that we went to was owned by someone in Hafith's family so it was very personal. I got to see pretty much every spice you can imagine in its natural habitat. Ranging from cadamon to cocoa to curry to Cinnamon right off the tree! It was great! At the end, the young boy of about 16 who was showing us around gave me a ring and a bracelet made from palm frons and he also made me a "crown" all from palm frons! It was really exciting and very nice of them to take me around the farm like they did. And I learned a pretty interesting fact about Zanzibar. In the 70s, Zanzibar counted all the palm trees on the island and at the time there were enough palm trees for every citizen to have 15! And at the time the population was about 700,000. Now that is a lot of palm trees!

So as you can see there are so many exciting things to do in Zanzibar and I am still having a really great time! I have put some pictures up on my Snapfish account, but they take a very long time to upload, so be patient!

Exciting Adventures Around Every Corner

Things are still going well here in Zanzibar, and I am starting to have somewhat of a schedule every day. My day normally goes as follows: Wake up at about 7:00am, get ready for school, eat a banana before leaving the house, walk 5 minutes to school, have class from 8:00am-12:00pm, then go to Stone Town for a little while (exploring and getting very lost), going back home to rest before dinner, have a big dinner, relax with the family, and go to bed at about 9:30pm or 10:00pm. Now let me break some of this down for you because things do not always go according to how I want them and that is something you learn from Zanzibari culture.

As you know from my last blog, I have switched houses so I can be closer to my school and Stone Town. I was looking forward to this change because that would mean more privacy for me and my things and a better location to go out and explore Stone Town which is the historical/tourist area of Zanzibar. So I woke up at 7:00am my first morning there to take a shower before going to school and I am very lucky because I have my own bathroom that is attached to my room and when I looked, it had a shower! This was very exciting for me because I had heard that some homes only have buckets to bathe with. So I wake up and get ready for my shower, turn the dial and nothing happened. Thinking that something must be wrong, I went to go ask Mariam (the maid) if there was something wrong. At this point she informed me that the water to the shower does not work and that I would have to use the water in the green bucket next to the shower to bathe with. Therefore, I took my very first of many "bucket baths." I do not mind so much because I think it is faster than a regular shower, but the only problem is that the water is always freezing cold because they do not have hot water in the house. But it definitely wakes me up in the morning!

The month of September is also Ramadan in the Islamic religion and is the month of fasting. So everyone in the family fasts all day with no food or water! And it is considered to be rude to eat in front of Muslims if you are not Muslim, therefore I eat a banana in my room every morning before school so that no one has to watch me eat. And the bananas here are amazing! They are little, about 1/2 the size of the bananas in America, and they are sweet.

Walking to school in normally uneventful but with several people always telling me "hallo" or "howareyou" haha! I will sometimes respond in Swahili and leave them looking very confused. School is really good because we talk about everything and laugh a lot! It is a really relaxing environment, very good for learning.

Next comes Stone Town which is beautiful and mystical because there are very tall stone buildings with winding alleyways where you are sure to get lost almost every time, but there is always someone who will point you in the right direction. But you have to be careful because there are a lot of local shops that try to rip you off and they hassle you to come in and buy their product. The other day one of them followed me at least a block trying to sell me a wooden carving that I was not the least bit interested in. But again, that is just part of the way of life here in Stone Town. I am really happy that I found 2 good free wireless Internet cafes in Stone Town, so I have uploaded some pictures onto Snapfish, but it takes a while so be patient with the pictures.

As part of Ramadan, everyday in the evening, there is a really big dinner at about 6:30pm because that is the only time you can eat or drink all day in Islamic culture. So I'm always home for that and Mama Rahma always makes really really good food! But after we eat, everyone goes into this sleepy spell and falls asleep for about 20 minutes haha! And then I normally do my homework and head off to bed for a good night of sleep under my mosquito net.

The other evening however, I came home to discover something very interesting. After being in Stone Town for the afternoon, I was pretty sweaty and exhausted. So when I came home I went in my room and went to go open the bathroom door. When I stepped my foot into the door, a RAT RAN into my FOOT and around the wall into my bedroom!!!! I did not scream, but jumped about 2 feet into the air and said a few choice words. Trying very hard to keep my composure, I quickly left my room to go tell someone about the rodent in my bedroom! Mama Rahma did not look surprised but asked me how big it was and I told her about 7 inches long. She then instructed me to close my door (which I already did) and that we would take care of it after dinner.

Still jittery, I did not have much of an appetite for dinner but was very anxious and slightly scared. So after dinner, the 3 men that were at the house entered into my room and searched everywhere for the rat, but it was never found... So they reassured me that it probably just went back to where ever it came from outside. It did take me quite a long time to fall asleep that night, and I was curled up in the middle of the bed the whole night. My mosquito net does not protect me from rats!

So as you can see, things sometimes do not run at a normal rate here in Zanzibar, but I am still loving it and meeting some wonderful people here as well! I have been to the beach several times and put my feet into the Indian Ocean! But there is still so much to explore and discover here in Zanzibar, but hopefully I will have some more exciting tales to tell next time!

Welcome to Zanzibar!

Things have definitely been "going" here, but I have basically discovered through my family and Zanzibar, that this is definitely more of a "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" kind of place. I never quite know what my day will encounter and what will be on my "program" as my homestay mom says. The family I am staying with is very interesting in themselves.

First of all, in Islam a man can have at most 4 wives because there are more women in the religion than men and therefore less women to get married if only one woman per man. And it is important that every Muslim experiences marriage before going to Heaven. But a man can only have multiple wives if he is able to provide and support them and any children they have. My homestay father has 3 wives and is considered to be one of the richest men on the island of Zanzibar! So this also means that he has several houses. For the first part of the week, I stayed in their new home of only 6 months. It was a beautiful 3 story home with air conditioning, electricity, indoor plumbing, and TV! The downside to this house is that it is very far away from my school (too far to walk) and far away from Stone Town which is the more "tourist" area of the island.

So on Wednesday morning at about 7:45am, few minutes before my homestay mom was going to bring me to school, she tells me that I am going to stay at another house that is closer to school and that we need to bring all my stuff to the other house that morning! Now, please understand that this was technically my 2nd day of school and I was told to arrive at 8:00am, so I was obviously going to be late. Oh, and the other thing is that I was NOT packed at all!! My stuff was dispersed all throughout my room and very unorganized, so I basically threw things into whatever was close and zipped everything up in about 5 minutes. My homestay mom and I then hauled my 2 suitcases, backpack, and purse down the winding flight of stairs since we were living on the 2nd floor. We get to the car and she realized that she has the wrong car key. Apologizing, she hurries back upstairs to get the correct key. This story makes a turn for the worse because as I am standing outside with my "life" in suitcases before me, it starts to rain...just lovely! So we quickly put all my things in the trunk and I convince her that we can just unload my suitcases out of the car when I get home from school. Phew! And surprisingly enough, I only arrive to school about 10 minutes late.

I go to school Monday-Friday from 8:00am-12:00pm where it is only myself and one other girl, Klara, from Sweden who speaks English very well. We have become friends and normally after school we will go to Stone Town and walk around a bit trying very hard not to look like tourists. I have decided that I do not want to look like a tourist if at all possible because the local people here treat you differently. For example, the other day, Klara and I were looking for a kanga for me to buy. A kanga is basically a piece of fabric and has beautiful designs on it and it also has a Swahili saying on it. You can use them for pretty much anything: a skirt, a shawl, a towel, a carpet, etc. So we went walking trying to find the best priced and best quality kanga for me. Being white and not Muslim, the shops automatically classify us as tourists and they will try to get as much money from you as possible. Klara bought a kanga in Tanzania for about 3000 Tanzanian Shillings (TNS). Every shop that we went to tried to sell one to me for 10,000 TNS! Even though 10,000TNS only equals about 10 USD, that was an outrageous price to pay at a local store! I tried to bargain with them, but they absolutely refused, so I walked away disgusted and not really wanting one anymore. I am so anxious to start speaking Swahili fluently because then I can come right back at those sales men and tell them no!

There is one other thing that happens to me multiple times a day here in Zanzibar...children staring at me and touching me! HAHA. It is like I am some kind of alien that they have never seen or encountered before. I find it very amusing, and they always say howareyou? very quickly. I normally always just shoot them a smile and they cower away, not knowing what to do.

So I am definitely having a good time so far in Zanzibar. It is extremely different here in the fact that no one rushes and everyone is very laid back. Very very different from America. Life works at a different pace here and I like it for now, but it is nice to be able to talk to people like Klara and discuss what things are like in our home countries. But for now that is all, and I will be writing again in a couple of days! I hope everyone at home stayed dry from Hurricane Gustav. I watched what little I could on SkyNews haha!

In Transit

So I am finally here! But getting here was quite the feat. Luckily or possibly amazingly, I made all my flights without any delays or cancellations. But after a 6 hour layover in Chicago, I was on the plane to London, only to be next to a man who was completely prejudice against people who were overweight or a little bit different.

Then once I got to Heathrow in London, I had to go through customs even though I was not leaving the airport, I had to recheck my luggage with Kenya Airways (the Pride of Africa--their slogan). So I did all of that and then someone directed me towards an escalator to get to the check-in desk of Kenya Airways. So with much difficulty and almost falling, I managed to get my 2 large pieces of luggage, my backpack, purse, and myself up the two escalators. Once reaching the top, very out of breath, I look to my left only to see 2 very large elevators that just came from the floor below! Oh well I thought, I was about to get rid of my luggage and be done with it...WRONG! After walking around trying to find the right desk, I asked someone where they were. This airport worker told me that I had to go back downstairs and get on the underground and go all the way to terminal 4 then go upstairs and the desk is there. You can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that.

So I do as I was directed and finally reaching a counter with Kenya Airways on it, the man tells me that they don't start checking in until 3:30pm which was 2 hours away! So I waited... and then checked in and then waited for about 6 more hours until my plane left. I know that Heathrow has all kinds of Duty Free shops, but honestly at the point I couldn't have cared less. All I wanted to do was be on the plane and asleep. Once on the plane to Nairobi, Kenya, things went surprisingly well. I was in the very front row of the plane with all the leg room I could want, and I sat next to a man who told me a lot about Tanzania.

Once the plane landed in Nairobi, I was getting very excited because I was almost to my final destination. As we got off the plane, I experienced something very peculiar. We walked off the plane and were directly on the blacktop where there were planes about 5 feet away from us. The passengers were not guided in any "safe" direction, but I just hoped that the people in front of me knew where to go. So after about 1/4 of a mile walk, I was finally in the airport. This was the first time of many that I will use the phrase "only in Africa".

The Nairobi airport was very interesting. I sat on the floor next to a cement blocked window and waited by my gate to be boarded onto the plain. Oh and the floor was the only option for sitting down. Then my flight was called about 45 minutes before it was scheduled to leave. So I went through the security and then was seated in a "holding room" with at least 100 other people who were all on different flights. And about 15 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave, an airport worker came running into the room and told us that our flight was getting ready to leave! So we walked very quickly, back outside onto the blacktop with all the planes just feet away, and I finally boarded my last plane! AMEN.

The flight to Zanzibar was very quick and the best flight of my 2 day travel! We passed by Mt. Kilimanjaro and I could see the snow topped mountain in all its glory! It was beautiful. Then we flew over water and islands started to pop up everywhere! It was amazingly beautiful. Paradise did not do it justice. And we had to fly all the way around Zanzibar to reach the island. when we landed, the airport was extremely small and quite unorganized! I went through "customs" haha and then out of the airport. Now the woman that was supposed to be picking me up from the airport was an American, but when I went outside, there was no American woman anywhere. Finally a very nice airport worker asked me if I needed help because I was just standing outside the airport looking around with all my luggage around me. (very out of place). And the main problem I was having was the fact that my US phone would not work to call any local numbers in Zanzibar or any American numbers. So this man was very nice and used his phone to call my homestay mother who he apparently knew because he perked up when I told him her name. \so he called her and spoke in Swahili to have someone come get me. And within 10 minutes, my homestay father was there to get me.

So things were a little rocky in some places on my travels over here, but I am settled in and I will definitely be writing more soon!

Kwaheri!